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    Tuesday, April 22, 2008       Free Headline Alerts

    Hamas suppressing Fatah protests, media

    GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime has continued its crackdown on the opposition Fatah movement.

    Palestinian sources said Hamas has increased restrictions on Fatah in the Gaza Strip. The sources said Hamas has banned demonstrations as well as Fatah publications and news coverage.

    On April 18, Hamas police prevented a Fatah protest in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Middle East Newsline reported. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said police officers beat demonstrators and fired into the air. The human rights group said the Fatah protest, called to commemorate Palestinians detained by Israel, had been peaceful.

    "Dozens of police officers deployed in the area prevented supporters of Fatah movement from organizing their demonstrations," PCHR said on April 20. "The police beat them and opened fire into the air to disperse them. They also arrested two supporters of Fatah movement, but released them later following the intervention of other parties."

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    Palestinian sources said Hamas has succeeded in preventing nearly all Fatah activities in the Gaza Strip. They said the lion's share of Fatah operatives have been driven underground or left the area.

    PCHR also reported that the Hamas regime prevented a Palestinian television camerman from working in Rafah. The group said the cameraman, identified as Imad Ajrami, represented the Al Alam satellite channel at the Fatah protest.

    "A number of individuals wearing civilian clothes came to me when I was in a civilian car," Ajrami recalled. "They introduced themselves as members of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. They forcibly confiscated my camera.

    Immediately, I went together with Mustafa Abul Hadi, correspondent of Al Arabiya satellite channel, to the police station in the town. There, an officer ordered us not to photograph the demonstration and gave us [back] the camera."

    The human rights group said Hamas routinely beats protesters and condemned what it termed the regime's "inhumane treatment." PCHR also called on the Islamic regime to end its ban on attorney visits to their clients in detention.

    "The center is concerned that this ban is motivated by the perpetration of illegal actions such as torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment against prisoners," the group said.



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